Latest News

Eye’s light-detection system revealed

A research team led by Johns Hopkins scientists has discovered that a special, tiny group of cells at the back of the eye help tell the brain how much light there is, causing the pupil to get bigger or smaller. The findings, which appeared in the Jan. 10 issue of Science, largely complete the picture of how light levels are detected in the eye.

“This tiny group of cells, together with rods and cones, are the bulk of the eye’s mechanisms for detecting levels of light and passing that in

Expanding the genetic code–TSRI scientists synthesize 21-amino-acid bacterium

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) report in an upcoming article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society their synthesis of a form of the bacterium Escherichia coli with a genetic code that uses 21 basic amino acid building blocks to synthesize proteins–instead of the 20 found in nature.

This is the first time that anyone has created a completely autonomous organism that uses 21 amino acids and has the metabolic machinery to build those amino acids.

“We

Dinosaurs experienced climate changes before K-T collision

Climate change had little to do with the demise of the dinosaurs, but the last million years before their extinction had a complex pattern of warming and cooling events that are important to our understanding of the end of their reign, according to geologists.

“The terrestrial paleoclimate record near the K-T is historically contradictory and poorly resolved,” says Dr. Peter Wilf, assistant professor of geosciences at Penn State. “In contrast, the resolution of K-T marine climates that has

Adjuvant chemotherapy improves survival in early-stage ovarian cancer

Results from two large European studies suggest that adjuvant chemotherapy immediately after surgery for early-stage ovarian cancer can increase some patients’ chances of both overall and recurrence-free survival. The findings are reported in three articles in the January 15 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

As many as 50% of patients with early-stage ovarian cancer relapse after surgery, and these subsequent tumor recurrences are often resistant to treatment. Adju

Artificial disc available to more patients as spine institute takes study to next phase

An artificial disc being studied as a replacement for damaged discs of the spine has been approved to move into Phase II trials, making it available to more patients, according to John J. Regan, M.D., director of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Institute for Spinal Disorders. A recently completed Phase I study compared the prosthesis to traditional fusion. In that phase, patients were randomized, with one having a fusion operation for every two that received the artificial disc. Now all patien

Superconducting sensor helps detecting gravitation waves

To be able to detect gravitation waves in space, physicist have to measure truly minimal displacements: ten billion times smaller than the size of an atom. An improved superconducting sensor is a suitable candidate for this job, Martin Podt of the University of Twente now states in his PhD thesis. He has improved the sensitivity of a so-called ‘SQUID’ in way that it can be combined with a large ball-shaped gravitation detector. Podt succeeds in this by improving the sensitivity. He integrates the sen

Page
1 17,582 17,583 17,584 17,585 17,586 17,968

Physics and Astronomy

Quantum vortices confirm superfluidity in supersolid

Supersolids are a new form of quantum matter that has only recently been demonstrated. The state of matter can be produced artificially in ultracold, dipolar quantum gases. A team led…

Imaging nuclear shapes by smashing them to smithereens

Scientists use high-energy heavy ion collisions as a new tool to reveal subtleties of nuclear structure with implications for many areas of physics. Scientists have demonstrated a new way to…

She uses light to modify matter

Part chemist, part physicist and 100% researcher, Niéli Daffé is interested in materials that change colour or magnetism when illuminated. She studies them using X-rays in her SNSF-supported research. From…

Life Sciences and Chemistry

New mechanism: How cancer cells escape the immune system

An international team led by Goethe University Frankfurt has identified an intracellular sensor that monitors the quality of so-called MHC-I molecules, which help the immune system recognize and kill harmful…

Cracking the code of DNA circles in cancer

Stanford Medicine-led team uncovers potential therapy. ecDNA catapults into spotlight. A trio of research papers from Stanford Medicine researchers and their international collaborators transforms scientists’ understanding of how small DNA…

The heaviest element ever chemically studied

Experiments at GSI/FAIR determine properties of moscovium an. An international team led by scientists of GSI/FAIR in Darmstadt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the Helmholtz Institute Mainz, succeeded in determining…

Materials Sciences

Polypropylene recyclates

… best quality at minimum cost thanks to precise stabilisation. Online characterisation, plastic formulations, more profitable. All organic substances, including plastics such as polypropylene (PP), undergo auto-oxidation in the presence…

BESSY II: New procedure for better thermoplastics

Thermoplastic blends, produced by a new process, have better resilience. Now, experiments at the IRIS beamline show, why: nanocrystalline layers increase their performance. Bio-based thermoplastics are produced from renewable organic…

Off the clothesline, on the grid

MXene nanomaterials enable wireless charging in textiles. Researchers demonstrate printed textile-based energy grid using MXene ink. The next step for fully integrated textile-based electronics to make their way from the…

Information Technology

Flexible beam-shaping platform optimizes LPBF processes

A new approach to beam shaping will soon make additive manufacturing more flexible and efficient: Fraunhofer ILT has developed a new platform that can be used to individually optimize laser…

Breakthrough in energy-efficient avalanche-based amorphization

… could revolutionize data storage. The atoms of amorphous solids like glass have no ordered structure; they arrange themselves randomly, like scattered grains of sand on a beach. Normally, making…

Expert for Distributed Satellite Systems

Small satellites that find and collect space debris: Mohamed Khalil Ben-Larbi is working towards this goal. He is the new Professor of Space Informatics and Satellite Systems at the University…